January 8: Back to Life

I haven’t forgotten that a couple of days ago I said that there were two important things about being alive that we wanted to learn from Genesis. We are exploring the first one: to be alive is to image God. Soon we will begin to explore the second, but there is still more to learn about imaging.

But first let’s review for a second:

God made us in his image.

To image God is to make the invisible God visible.

To image God is to have impact in this world.

We can’t fully understand imaging God without understanding Christ.

If we want to understand what “To live is Christ” means, we need to continue to pursue the meaning of life itself. This has been our journey so far.

We already said that to image God is to have impact. But let’s keep exploring this idea.

Genesis 2:15. The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work [take care of] it and keep [protect] it.

Let me ask you to think about this question: Have you ever felt truly alive by taking care of something or someone or by protecting something or someone?

Well that’s exactly how God wants us to feel.

Do you feel it? Or are you bored, boring, or burnt out?

Taking care of and protecting the garden- this is what Jesus is restoring in and through us. He doesn’t want us to live dead inside. He wants us to find life, love, and purpose in the garden in which he has placed us. He came to wake us up and bring us back to life.